Queer Heroes for Cabin Names Revealed

Following a month and a half community submission process and some voting, we have chosen the nine queer heroes that our cabins will be renamed after. Each cabin will then get a plaque, telling that person’s story to all of our visitors. We specifically chose queer heroes that are lesser known, so even history buffs are likely to encounter some new names.

We are working with some esteemed queer history experts to create truly accurate herstories to be shared. In the meantime, here are these all too brief descriptions. Most of these heroes were lifelong activists; please take some time to poke around on the internet and learn even more about these inspirational individuals.

~ Paula Gunn Allen, a queer Native American poet, novelist, and lesbian activist who helped draw attention to the powerful and essential role women played in native cultures.

~ Kiyoshi Kuromiya, a queer Japanese American born in a U.S. internment camp who fought for social justice his whole life, including by the side of Martin Luther King, Jr.

~ Marsha P. Johnson, a queer African American and transgender activist who was essential in the start of the Stonewall Riots and continued community organizing all the way through AIDS and ACT UP.

~ Sylvia Rivera, A queer Latina American and transgender activist who was a founding member of the Gay Liberation Front and worked alongside Marsha during the Stonewall Riots and in STAR, the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries.

~ Marie Equi, a white American lesbian doctor who became involved with the very early struggles for access to birth control and abortion, as well as labor and anarchist struggles.

~ Osh-Tisch, a Native American warrior, poet, artist, and tribal leader, who was one of the last in a revered position of the Crow Tribe that today might be identified as queer.

~ Domingos Rodrigues, born in 1595 in Lisbon as the son of a black slave and a white slave owner, Domingos was a slave and a gender variant dancer who was tried and executed by the inquisition.

~ Gloria Evangelina Anzaldua, a queer Latina American who was a prominent scholar on Chicana cultural theory, feminist theory, and queer theory.

~ Magnus Hirschfeld, a queer Jewish German physician and sexologist who is considered one of the earliest advocates for gay and transgender rights, the books of his Institute for Sexual Research were the first major book burn by the Nazis.

We honor you all and the many other queer heroes who have helped us come so far. Thank you.